News

Busway Community Newsletter No. 2

Recieved in the post yesterday a letter from Urban Services the “Belconnen to City Busway Community Newsletter No. 2”. While Letter No. 1 is online here No. 2 is not yet up.

Letter No. 2 asks for Community input into the plan, listing what they have already heard, inlcuding

– Busway is a good idea provided it cna deliver on objectives
– Rail or light rail would encourage people to change modes (whats the likelihood of this getting any more thought)
– Canberra does not have traffic congestion problems that warrant the proposed level of expenditure on public transport
– No need to spend as much money on the project
– Final route needs to minimise impact on bushland (and maybe have the right procedures followed?)
– Ensure that existing bus services from south Belconnen can enter and leave the busway (will they even be kept running?)
– Conside splitting Busway lanes to allow faster speeds for buses – 100km and above, faster than is allowable for cars (not going to happen, as someone will come out with the argument that cars will then speed to go faster to race the buses)
– Avoid bridges and overpasses on Barry Drive section (there is no other way of avoiding all the traffic in Turner and the ANU, so the trip will be as slow as a normal bus if they dont)

There are 3 main options for the busway, each having a few sub-options the question is which will the ACT govt back, which will the Federales back and which will the people actually want?

What’s Your opinion?

I received it late last week and haven’t recycled it yet as it has a certain comedy value. I particularly like the section where they propose allowing buses to travel well above car speed limits along the busway. Maybe they should check the ACTION website as the older orange buses are physically only capable of 83km/h and the new buses are speed limited to 85km/h.

The older buses are fairly solid, but I can honestly say that being on a green bus travelling over 100km/h (with speed limiting, and probably physical limitations, removed) would not feel safe, and probably wouldn’t be safe.

The longer this goes on, the more I start to favour point-to-point intertown light rail with buses servicing area-to-interchange routes.